Ulterior Motives
by faeriedust12
Summary: A Wordgirl and Tobey fic. It's terribly fluffy and somewhat OOC, but I think it turned out kinda cute!


**Hello all Tobey and Wordgirl fans! My second story about these two, they're just so much fun to write about :) This one's not in episode format, it's narrative, and I'm pretty sure it's just a oneshot (but I may write more of this thread if I feel inspired, or if you all like it enough!) So, yeah, it's pretty much just fluffiness :D**

* * *

It simply wasn't fair.

Tobey seethed as he watched Wordgirl simper sickeningly at that stupid reporter wannabe, Todd "Scoops" Ming. Tobey felt his lip curl with disgust as he listened unwillingly to the boy's babble regarding his next story, featuring Tobey's latest defeat by Wordgirl. Except, from the sound of it, one might be led to believe that Scoops had single-handedly defeated the boy genius.

As if.

Tobey would have stalked away in a snit by this point if he hadn't been clutched bodily in the severed metal hand of one of his own demolished robots. As Wordgirl sighed dreamily at the back of Scoops' oblivious head, Tobey felt rage course through his body. For once he couldn't wait for his mother to arrive, as long as he didn't have to watch another instant of this nauseating spectacle.

What could Wordgirl possibly see in that dull-witted, egotistic idiot?

As far as Tobey could tell, he was far superior to Scoops in every way; he had a vocabulary to rival Wordgirl's, he could create whole armies of robots, he shared Wordgirl's love of books, he actually paid attention when Wordgirl was talking to him, and he seemed to be the only person who could remember that her sidekick was a monkey, not an aardvark.

So why was she making puppy-eyes and stuttering around this imbecile in a reporter's hat?!

When his mother did show up, Tobey barely heard her lecture, hardly felt the painful grip on his ear. Sitting sullenly in the backseat of the van, Tobey plotted.

* * *

When screams of "ROBOT!!!" were picked up by Wordgirl's super hearing the following afternoon, she sighed, "Tobey again, really?"

But when she reached the street the cries had been coming from, she wasn't entirely sure that it was Tobey again, for the boy standing in the palm of the robot looked decidedly un-Tobey-ish. For one thing, he wasn't holding a remote, but a notepad and pencil, and no havoc was being wreaked around him. He was wearing a yellow shirt and a reporter's hat identical to those usually worn by Scoops. But most surprising of all, was this possibly-Tobey's lack of enormous round glasses. Without them he looked almost… cute. But Wordgirl would have burned her dictionary before admitting that.

"Tobey? Is that you?"

The blond boy-who-seemed-to-be-Tobey turned his head and squinted at her.

"Ah, Wordgirl, how pleasant to see you!" he said, in a voice that was unmistakably Tobey's. But then he corrected himself and said, in a voice shockingly without accent, "I mean, oh hey Wordgirl."

Wordgirl blinked at him, speechless.

In an attempt to relieve the awkward silence, Tobey, again in his un-Tobey-ish voice, said, "Um, so, um… Uh, do you like my new hat?"

Snapping out of her trance, Wordgirl asked sharply, "What are you up to, Tobey?"

"Oh, I just wanted to see if I could maybe interview you," said Tobey, the lack of accent unnerving Wordgirl.

"What's going on? Why are you acting like Scoops all of a sudden?" she asked.

"Scoops? Am I acting like him?" said Tobey, overly innocent, "I'm just really into journalism right now, that's all."

"So you want me to believe that overnight you've turned from evil boy genius into mild-mannered reporter and there's no secret plot beneath it all? How dumb do you think I am?" Wordgirl said accusatorily.

"Ok, maybe there is an ulterior motive— I mean, another reason— for me to suddenly want to be a reporter, but there's no evil plot, I promise," he said earnestly. Then, quietly, "And I don't think you're dumb at all."

"Oh…" Wordgirl was at a loss as to how to respond to this oddly truthful-sounding Tobey. She even blushed a little at the sincerity of his last sentence. "Well, if it's nothing bad, then what _are_ your ulterior motives?"

Tobey seemed about to say something, but then he blushed and, instead of answering her question, he asked one of his own that baffled Wordgirl, "What does 'ulterior motives' mean?"

"What?! You just used that phrase yourself, how do you not know what it means?"

"I just don't… But you'll explain it to me, right? You like explaining words to reporter types, right?"

"I'll explain 'ulterior motives' to the boy genius when you explain to me what exactly is going on," Wordgirl said, frustrated and confused.

"I just really wanted to be a repor—"

"I mean what's really going on! Even if you somehow really did turn into a reporter overnight, why are you dressed exactly like Scoops and even trying to talk like him and pretend you don't know words like him?" Wordgirl fairly fumed.

There was a stretch of silence as Tobey flushed pink, struggling to find words. Then, in a very, very small voice, he said, "Because you like him."

Wordgirl gave a little gasp.

"But how did you—"

"Oh please," said Tobey, his accent returning as his control broke down, "Anyone with eyes could tell you like him, the way you moon over him and stutter and blush around him. You practically drool at him!" his tone was harsh, but the underlying hurt was evident, "I don't even know why you like him, he's so stupid and all he wants to do is be a reporter, so he doesn't even pay attention to you except when it will help him get a better story, but you do still like him, so I thought… So I thought…." He gave a funny little breath, "So I thought maybe if I was just like him, you'd like me too."

Wordgirl was, to use one of her favorite words, flabbergasted.

"Oh… Tobey I…"

"Don't," he cut her off, "It was stupid of me." He yanked the reporter's hat off his head and scrunched it in his hands, not daring to look at her. "I suppose I'll be going now." He jammed his notepad and pencil into his pocket and then pulled out a remote. His finger hovered over the button that would tell his robot to take him home, when…

"Ulterior motive: a secret second reason for doing something."

"What?" Tobey looked up, puzzled.

Blushing, Wordgirl replied, "I said I would define 'ulterior motive' for you if you told me what your ulterior motive was." She smiled a little at her word-ish joke. Tobey scowled.

"You don't have to rub in how stupid I was. You know I know what 'ulterior motive' means."

"I know," Wordgirl flew in closer to Tobey and smiled, "But I happen to like explaining words to boy-genius types." Tobey's eyes grew wide as he processed what she had just said.

"Y-you mean you—"

Wordgirl leaned forward just enough to place a small kiss on Tobey's cheek.

"Yeah, I do."

Tobey's blush was as bright as his smile.

* * *

**It'd be nice if you'd review, so I'd know if you liked this or if it was too fluffy (my sister pretended to choke on the fluffiness when she read this, but she's 12, you know?) I know they were a little OOC, but, oh well... So, yeah, please review :)**


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